January 21, 2011

Say what you will about the Coalition…

Civil liberties campaigners have been celebrating after the Government announced controversial powers to detain terror suspects without charge for 28 days would not be renewed.

Home Secretary Theresa May will let the order allowing the detention period expire, meaning that from Tuesday next week the detention limit will revert to 14 days.

Don’t get me wrong, 14 days is still too long, but I’m pretty sure I’ve not seen the words “Civil liberties campaigners have been celebrating” since… well, ok, ID cards were abandoned.

Naturally, that most Progressive of parties, Labour, welcomed the reverse:

Shadow home secretary Ed Balls, whose question forced the minister’s announcement, said: “This is a deeply arrogant way for the Government to treat this House and it is a shambolic way to make policy on vital issues of national security.”

Ed Balls basic premise is that a step in the right direction on civil liberties is bad because of the way it treats the body that attempted to make a very notion of the word liberty. For a man who was part of government that attempted to introduce 90 days of detention without trial, I think Mr Balls should sit down and have nice long drink of shut-the-fuck-up.